51. Stoclet Journal Quilt

I'm nearing the end of the 52 Journals project and just had to make at least one journal quilt inspired by one of my most favourite artists: Gustav Klimt. This Austrian artist is a master of decoration and also used a lot of gold in his work so a man after my own heart.

The Knight, one of the 3 panels that together form the Stoclet Frieze, is a piece I've always loved which might well have something to do with the fact that when you look at a picture of it (see above) it could just as easily be a quilt as a painting. It's hanging in the Dining Room of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels. This house is still in private hands and is not open for public visits so at the moment there is no opportunity to see it in person, although the entire house is now a Unesco World Heritage site. This panel in itself could inspire many pieces and in fact Klimt's work could have provided me with the inspiration for all my 52 Journals! Now there is a thought! If you look for instance at the square filled with triangles at the bottom you can see that was the start for my Fluttering wallhanging. 

For this Journal Quilt I choose the area slight higher and drew it as a pattern using my Electric Quilt computer program. At first I wanted to use it as a strictly geometric pattern but in the end decided that random would be more to my taste and using my collection of batik remnants set to work piecing away and you can see the result at the top. I then machine quilted over the entire surface of the piece with a variegated thread. That worked quite well but the journal quilt  needed something else to finish it.

And I found that something else in the shape of inchies. This was a rage some years ago, with the idea being to make art on a 1" square.

I looked around again for something to make the inchies out of and found what was left of the background of a fabric postcard made many years ago, called Forest Lovers and which you can see above (the image of the lovers is from Alpha Stamps). I had enough left to produce 7 inchies which I spread over the surface of the journal quilt as you can see above and then followed in Klimt's footsteps by beading around them using real gold seed beads. Of course the edges along the binding were also beaded.

So this is it, no. 51, and only one left to go! Remember you can see all the JQs thus far on the slideshow in the sidebar here or by clicking on the 52 Journals label below this post.

Dream flowers in Craft Stamper Magazine

And just when I'm starting to catch up with uploading my art to this blog I'm caught out by the arrival of the latest issue (October 2011) of the Craft Stamper magazine in which my article and project called Dream Flowers is published (page 74). The magazine is very strict about what you can publish on your blog about the projects you write for them so if you want to see it in full there is only one option: buy the magazine. This does not just give you my article but I'm pleased to say this entire issue is a fabric special and you will also get a wonderful star stamp (see the picture below) although sadly not if you live outside the U.K.

I'm able to show you one item which is not the main project but an extra which you can only find online at the Craft Stamper whereas two other projects are in the magazine itself together with full instructions of how to make them! This is the fabric postcard shown at the top. As always I love the way the article has been laid out and photographed. This magazine always does such a good job with the styling etc.

I know it's pure coincidence or maybe another example of wonderful synchronicity but I love the fact that the stamp this month is a star, which is a symbol beloved of my wonderful friend, Lenna Andrews. She even used it for her wedding. How great is that??!

An exotic visitor and Lenna's postcard

For several weeks now there has been a pea hen in our neighbour's field. He did his best to find out where she had come from and eventually discovered she had flown away from people at the opposite side of West Linton. Apparently a fox had killed her chick and she had disappeared. These birds have a wil of their own and somehow she had managed to make her way to our neighbours. And you can guess what happened next! This morning she was on our flat roof. I was of course delighted and have been following in her footsteps with my camera for most of the day. You can tell she is used to people as she let me come quite close!

A bit of a sad story but it doesn't seem to have affected her present appetite. We put out bird seed for her, as well as peanuts and layers' pellets (our usual food for the chickens) and she nibbled away on it all, as well as getting her greens by munching on some of the wildflowers. She is poking her head into the greenhouse and was seen sitting on our pergola very contentedly. The cockerel wasn't quite as pleased with her visit as we are and John had to rescue her from their enclosure as he prepared to attack.

They are amazingly beautiful birds. I know the hen is not considered to be as gorgeous as the peacock and he does make wonderful displays which his tail feathers, but she is very lovely too. She has spend her day around the house and is presently sitting on the shed roof, looking around as if she owns the place, not realizing there is a greyhound on the ground who would consider her as dinner if she came down from there! We will have to sort something out as she must be lonely and it will be hard work to keep her and Troi (the greyhound in question) separated. It would be best to return her to where she came from but so far she does come close but not close enough to capture her and we don't want to stress her. Will have to see what we can do.

And finally there was good news, Lenna has received my fabric postcards on the theme of a Summer's Day, including the one I made specially for her and which went directly through the mail. You can read about that on the Creative Swaps site here and more about the other postcards and how I made them on a previous blogpost.

A summer's Day Fabric Postcards

My very good friend Lenna has instigated another of her wonderful swaps on her special blog site for them. This time is was for a Mail Art swap figuring postcards with the theme of A Summer's Day. We make 3 postcards and send them to her in one little parcel and then she will swap them out individually by mailing 3 postcards back to us, with each one going individually through the mail. There is still time to sign up here! And you can an very informative PDF file with lots of hints and tips about making postcards and mail art.

All the cards started with white cotton fabric that I painted, sprayed, stamped and stencilled till I was happy with the finished product. I then added a strip of fabric that resulted from a flower drawing I did, and scanned into the computer and then printed out again. It was a left over from a previous Journal Quilt Walking in Beauty. I used my Xyron Design Runner to add the text. I then added the flower fairies, rub-offs, such as the LOVE above and rose scraps. The word SUMMER came from a self adhesive sheet of gold letters and I was really happy there were enough letters to make that word for all 4 of the cards.

All the fabric images are of flower fairies (from Altered Pages), the one above is a nasturtium fairy, above that is the rose fairy and the top one features a daisy fairy. As a final touch I added gloss medium over the entire surface of the postcard. I did this recently on some ATCs and really liked the effect. It also makes the surface water resistant, and as these cards will eventually go through the mail system that seemed beneficial.

Finally here is the back for all the cards. I've again used my scanned in flower drawing as well as a scan from the back of a vintage postcard, layered the 2 together digitally and added the quotation as requested by Lenna. We had to come up with a sentence that started: A summer's Day and as you can see I produced the following: A summer's day is like being in heaven while still living on earth!

I also made a card specially as a gift for Lenna which I was going to include with the 3 cards above that together will go in a little package to Florida before too long, but then I thought this is after all a mail art swap so I gathered my courage together and mailed her card off to her in the mail yesterday. Sandra at the Post Office and I had a great time finding picture stamps to go on the card and then she put it in the mail bag with both of us wishing it a safe journey. I'll upload a picture of that one once Lenna receives it.

Featured in Patchwork Professional

It was wonderful to receive my copy of the latest issue of the German magazine Patchwork Professional in the mail today. No, I'm not a subscriber but there is a Question & Answer article about me in the magazine, together with beautiful pictures of my work. I love the images the editor, Dorothee Crane, choose to use and my Flames of Passion quilt must touch something in people because it is featured prominently in the article as well as on the poster for the colour - quilts - collage exhibition. And perhaps it's only fair to admit it's among my favourites too!

The above card was used by Dorothee to illustrate her editorial at the beginning of the issue (02/2011) and my German was just about good enough for me to translate her very entertaining comments. She suggested an alternative ending to the Red Riding Hood fairytale along the lines of: And if they hadn't died, they would still be quilting today. She also gave it as her opinion that many world problems would be solved if only the parties concerned came together for a quilting bee. Even if they couldn't reach a solution, at least they would have a wonderful quilt at the end! Couldn't agree more!

By the way, the question on this fabric card reads: "Never mind your nose, grandmother, how did you make that quilt?", which is the question I get asked most often whenever I give talks, workshops or as now at the exhibition (minus the nose bit, needless to say).

I also did a project for the Patchwork Professional magazine, more about that tomorrow! You can order a copy from the website of the magazine or if you live in either Germany or The Netherlands from book/magazine shops.

Lenna's MailArt Swap

My lovely and wonderful friend Lenna Andrews is hosting another exciting swap on her Creative Swaps blog. This time it's on the subject of Mail Art and you can read all about it (as well as sign up!) here. If you sign up you will receive a great PDF file, entirely dedicated to Mail Art, explaining what it is and suggesting techniques.

Needless to say I could not resist and once I had signed up and read Lenna's file I started work on the envelopes. It was about time to start using my new Inktense watercolor pencils and I made a grid of 1" squares on my envelopes and coloured them in. I then sprayed water over the squares which activates the Inktense colours and makes them more vibrant and also lets them run into each other. I also sprayed the envelopes with Moon Shadow Mists. After thoroughly drying the envelopes I went on to get out some of my favourite rubberstamps and Staz-On inkpads in a variety of colours and stamped away merrily. Of course I also typed Lenna's address with a suitable background colour and further adorned the envelope with my own address as well as an Airmail sticker. I've blocked out the addresses to be on the safe side!

Above is the back of the envelope, also embellished with stamps. The idea is to send the envelopes all to Lenna's address and she will then swap them out, also in an embellished envelope. So you will receive Lenna's envelope with 3 pieces of Mailart, mailed to her, inside.
If you're confused you can read all about this swap on Creative Swaps.

Lenna only required an empty envelope but that seemed a bit sad to me so I also made 4 fabric postcards as shown on this post, and enclosed these in a plastic sleeve and then put one into every adorned envelope. We only needed to make 3 for our Mail Art swap but I made an extra set for Lenna.

The postcards were made from a hand-painted and stamped fabric, that was ironed on to Fast2Fuse. I made clear tape transfers from images out of a vintage magazine (the Harmsworth Magazine, published in the late 19th C) and sewed these onto the background as shown. I added vintage lace or a peach vintage trim to the cards, and embellished further with beads around the images.

I then found vintage quotations that went with the various images.

Finally I scanned in the back of one of my vintage postcards, added the Swap information and my name + contact details and printed this out onto inkjet printable canvas. I sewed on a vintage postage stamp to this as well in keeping with our Mail Art theme,The canvas was ironed onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse and the edges finished with satin stitching using a variegated thread.

After I had put the postcards into the decorated envelopes I drove to our local postoffice which I engaged the help of our postmaster and together we selected 2 beautiful stamps to go on the front of the envelopes to cover the postage to Florida. The envelopes looked gorgeous with their stamps but you will have to wait to see them till they arrive with Lenna and she posts pictures on the Creative Swaps site! Then the 4 envelopes went in the mail bag this afternoon at 16.00 hrs. It will be interesting to see if they all arrive with Lenna on the same day too??!! So far this swap has already gladdened the hearts of 3 people (the postmaster, John and I). Hopefully it will have the same effect on everyone who handles the envelopes!

Garden Variety Postcard Swap

The inimitable Lenna Andrews is organizing another fab swap and of course the temptation proved too much for me and before I knew it I had signed up. This swap is run in conjunction with Alpha Stamps and they and Lenna will provide prizes! .

You can find all information on the swap here and once you sign up you will also receive a wonderful PDF file from Lenna giving all the necessary information as well as a great description of how she made her postcards. Of course the requirement is to use images from Alpha Stamps but this is hardly a punishment as they are so fantastic. Specially for this swap there is an entire page dedicated to the theme of the swap: Garden Variety on the Alpha Stamps website.

I was lucky enough to receive some of these beautiful supplies as a member of the Alpha Stamps Design Team. In fact, it was the last time that I received their Design Team kit as sadly I have decided to leave the team after being in it since 2007. My exhibition next year and various other commitments meant there simply was no time left but of course I will continue to order their collage sheets and join swaps on their Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group. I'll upload the samples I made with my last kit in the next few days but here are the 4 postcards I made for Lenna's swap

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I also made 2 ATCs, one as part of the swap and one for Lenna. I used the Alpha Stamps Sunflower as well as Tallulahs' Flowers collage sheets and as you can see could not resist adding some more sparkling transparencies to the ATCs. I promise to give that a rest for some time now!

For the postcards I used two different fabric-paper backgrounds and even the back of the postcards were decorated with a Postcard stamp as well as a rose stamp (both available from Alpha Stamps), as well as a flower postage stamp.

These PCs and ATCs will be winging their way to Lenna before too long and if you want to be in with a chance to get them join the swap!

Shades of Autumn on a card and a award

I've mailed off another item from my list in order to beat the postal strike here in the U.K. which is due to start tomorrow barring any last minute negotiations (fingers crossed, everyone!!!)

This fabric postcard was made in reply to a call for contributions in a German language quilting magazine: Patchwork & Quiltjournal, published in Vienna. The fabric postcards are going to be sold in aid of research into cystic fibrosis during an exhibition in Morzine-Avoriaz in France, July 2010. It took me awhile to figure out that this was what the German word mucoviscidose translates as! Anyway if you are interested in participating, all you have to do is make a fabric postcard with a paper backing and send it in an envelope to:

Caty Richard, Art du Quilt

428 Route d'Avoriaz,

F-74110 Morzine-Avoriaz

France

I choose to make my postcard in autumnal shades as you can tell, with a woven background. Eight inchies were added and also some lovely star charms.

By chance I was also the happy recipient of a blog award from Lenna , called The Deborah Award, with the following statement attached: "Friendship isn't about who you have know the longest, but who came and never left your side". I deeply appreciate both the words as well as the award, Lenna!! The award came with a beautiful image of an autumnal leaf in the same shades as the card. Some things are just meant to be!!

She never fails to please Fabric Postcard

Occasionally there is something in our Alphastamps kits which makes me wonder what on earth I'm ever going to do with that?? The 4 Faces stamps are a case in point. Leslie, the owner of Alphastamps suggests on the website that you can use these stamps for Easter eggs, but I personally think they might put you off your breakfast egg for quite a while!!

Eventually I came to grips with 2 of the faces (still contemplating the other two!!) and decided I could dress them up with elements from the rest of our kit, and make them into a fabric postcard.

The background is a piece of Dutch damask green fabric which was layered with wadding (batting in U.S.) and machine quilted using one of the decorative stitches on my machine. I cut a strip of ivory fabric onto which I stamped the 3 faces (using Versacraft inkpad and heat setting). The faces were then dressed up with items taken from Alphastamps Get Dressed and Doll Parts sheets. These I transferred to Stick and Peel fabric sheets (from Crafty Computer Paper), so that all I had to do was cut them out, remove the backing sheet and stick them down where I wanted. As 2 hats already had flowers I added a blue flower to the last hat, cut from another fabric and using Bondaweb (WonderUnder). For once I decided to put my trust in the glue and not do any additional stitching.

The ladies now looked rather daring and in my opinion they really needed in your face red lipstick which I gave them, using a colouring pencil.

The text She never fails to please was added with a Dymo writer and stitching. The fabric was finished with another green fabric and Bondaweb (WonderUnder) to give the card some stiffness and the edges were finished by satin stitching.

The ladies definitely brought a smile to my face when they were done!

Blue Rose Fabric Postcard

I made this postcard as a gift for someone and wanted to keep it a surprise, but as she has now received it here is a picture of it for you all to see.

I used part of a vintage handkerchief for this card, featuring a blue rose. Of course although some roses are supposed to be blue, in reality they are more mauve coloured and a true blue rose (just like a true blue tulip) has yet to be invented. I don't really know why growers are so anxious about finding them as roses in my opinion are pretty enough in whites, pinks, reds, and yellows and tulips already come in an amazing array of colours but blue seems to be the Holy Grail.

I'm not sure when I acquired this handkerchief as I have been buying them together with vintage postcards since my student days when I used to rummage among the flea markets of Amsterdam. As I did not have a lot of money I indulged my buying streak with these relatively cheap items and have kept it up ever since. Even nowadays when I feel the need to buy something coming upon me I search Ebay for them.

Anyway it seemed this handkerchief really wanted to make it onto a fabric postcard so here it is, together with two fabric Eros heads (from Alphastamps Fairytale Curtains sheet). They are singing the praises of Blue Roses, I guess!!

I then covered the entire postcard with a transparent glittery fabric so the rose looks sort of mysterious.

Two Fabric Postcards

I used a background I made some time ago to make two more fabric postcards today. Sometimes I go for a long time without making them and then all of a sudden I get the urge and make some. It might have been talking about them during my talk in Limerick that brought it on but I also needed to make some gifts.

Anyway, the background is a copper/black lame mix which was machine quilted with a decorative stitch. This was cut to the 4 x 6" size and black vintage lace was added to both cards (from Lost Art Creations). I added images from my own postcards, printed onto fabric and quotations, one about charm (printed onto Extravorganza) and the other on fabric. Black shine size 11 seed beads were stitched on by hand. The edges were finished with black satin stitching.

These cards really sparkle although this is hard to see on the scans!

Fabric Postcard A Long Farewell

I made a fabric postcard as a gift for someone today, because I (and my hands!) needed a bit of light relief from quilting. I used bits and pieces laying around my worktable and came up with this arrangement which turned out completely different from what I had in mind but which which I like all the same. The background is a jeans coloured piece of fabric which was layered with Fast2Fuse. The red lacy fabric was stitched on top as well as the red and green sandwich shown at the right. To them I added a red button with green stitching.

The image is in fabric and comes from Alphastamps Pre-Raphaelite Women collage sheet and was stitched down using a small red zigzag stitch. I beaded around it by hand, using a mix of green size 11 seed beads.

The small green buttons were also added as shown with red stitching and I found a suitable text:

Farewell, a long farewell, which seemed to go with her thoughtful look and the ships in the background.

I ironed on a backing fabric to the Fast2Fuse's other side and finished the postcard with red satin stitching around all the edges.

I want my tea

This is another project with the Alice in Wonderland goodies from Alphastamps! It was made quite some time ago but what with my mother's visit this is the first opportunity for me to show it on my blog.

It's a fabric postcard, which was started with some velvet like fabric in cream which was layered up with Fast2Fuse (now also available from Alphastamps!). This was then machine quilted using one of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine. The paper images (all from the Mad Hatter's Teaparty #1 sheet from Alphastamps) were glued on and then surrounded by frames from the Alphastamps Inchies sticker sheet, which will be coming soon, in the meantime there is also a great inchies clear stamp set. The text I want my tea was made with my Dymo writer on transparent, self-adhesive tape, and I also surrounded it with decorative machine stitching in turquoise, picking up the colour from Alice's chair.

I added a gelato spoon (after adding the text with Dymo writer) by glueing and also a bit of stitching and outlined it with hand done running stitch, again in turquoise.

By hand, I also added sparkling turquoise size 11 seed beads all over the surface of the card.

I ironed a backing fabric to the other side of the Fast2Fuse and finished off the fabric card with a turquoise transparent ribbon (Threadart) around the edges.

A fun project which was sort of inspired by the words I want my tea, uttered by old-fashioned husbands as they returned home from work. I don't think there are many of these left and certainly the one who lives here, would not dare!!

Lost Art Creations Fabric Pages

The quote for the above fabric page: Man is the hunter, woman is his game.

I'm making great progress in catching up with all my outstanding projects and I had fun with these pages this week. They are for a swap on the Lost Art Creations Yahoo group and of course use LAC images. There are 5 of us in this swap and we're each making 5 original pages. Terrie, the owner of Lost Art Creations is going to make the fabric covers and our pages will then be inserted into this fabric book. I can't wait to see how it will look when finished.

The quotation for the above card is as follows:She only said, "My life is dreary,He cometh not", she said;She said, "I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead"

All the images I used for the female focus points on each page (which are 4.5 x 6.5") are from LAC Belle Epoque sheet (in vellum form) and when I was rummaging for the fabric that I used on the Striped Inchies (see previous post) I came across this other lovely one with pink and brown stripes which reminded me of old interior wall paper, maybe from the Belle Epoque times.
I layered it up with Fast2Fuse and machine quilted it and then cut out my 5 pages.

The quote for this card is as follows: She stood, a sight to make an old man young.

The theme for the swap is Quotations and I sat down with a book of quotations to find suitable ones to accompany the images. The majority of the quotes I used are from Tennyson. Then I looked for other images to further illustrate the quote.

The quote for this card: A daughter of the gods, divinely tall; And most divinely fair

I also used vintage lace (also from LostArtCreations) in the background of each page. To some of the pages I added more images (all from LAC) and to others also rub-ons. I was not sure if these would work on fabric and lace, but they looked great! I beaded around each Belle Epoque lady with size 11 seed beads and the final decoration were the little buttons I added to each card.

The quote for the above page: Quit, quit, for shame, this will not move, This cannot take her; If of herself she will not love, Nothing can make her: The Devil take her!

I ironed a backing fabric onto the other side of the Fast2Fuse and finished the edges with a beige transparant ribbon (from Threadart).

Happy Easter

I would like to wish everyone a happy Easter. It's a bit strange to do so when there is snow laying outside. I don't think this has ever happend before but Easter is really early and the winter here in Scotland definitely has a sting in its tail. And to think that last year we could sit outside in the sunshine at around the same time. Is this Global Warming or just freak weather??

I made this fabric postcard for my aunt and uncle (although I don't call them that as they are virtually the same age as I am and in fact, my aunt is younger.

The background is the same as for the ATCs in my previous post and all images and text are from old fabric sheets from Artchix Studio (they have discontinued their fabric sheets unfortunately). It's not too Easter in spirit (I'm not religious) but was more intended to celebrate the coming of Spring. I made it several weeks ago and at that time the weather was quite kind and I had not foreseen what was coming our way.

Hope the eggs don't freeze wherever you are!!

Alphastamps Tallulahs Postcard Swap

This swap is run by the very creative, wonderful Lenna who like me is also a member of the Alphastamps Design Team. You can read all about her swaps and sign up for them here.

I've finished my cards today. They are all more or less the same although they use different images, all from Paris Showgirls I and II. The particular one above uses an image from I. The background for the card was a black velvet with gold streaks in it. I layered this with black batting (or wadding in U.K.) and quilted it in straight lines, using gold thread. It's barely visible but you can catch a sparkle now and then. Once I had quilted the background I cut it to 4 x 6" size.

I ironed Wonderunder (or Bondaweb in U.K.) to the back of a red fabric and drew hearts on the paper side of the Wonderunder. The hearts were cut out and applied to the background, following the manufacturers' instructions. I also straight stitched around the outline of the hearts with red thread by machine. The fabric images were then cut out from the collage sheets, leaving a narrow outline around the figure. I stitched it down in this outline, again with straight stitching. Position the lady so that the figure partly obscures the heart. I added red felt heart shapes (from Alphastamps Die-cut Self-adhesive felt) towards the bottom bit of the figure.

The red heart at the top was beaded with size 11 red seed beads. At the bottom I stitched a red crushed velvet ribbon, also from Alphastamps

I then printed out onto cardstock a vintage postcard backing. I scanned this in using one of my vintage postcards and added the text in Photoshop Elements. This was layered as the back of the postcard and after straight stitching the edges I finished them off with a transparent ribbon (from ThreadArt)

A Merry Christmas Fabric Postcard

And now back to my sewing. If I'm discovering one thing, it's that I still love this more than anything else as an art medium. Give me a sewing machine or a needle and thread and I'm a happy woman. They seem to transport me to a calm, relaxing space where only the stitching matters.

So last night, in addition to playing with my Golden paints, I also made a Xmas fabric/paper collage on a piece of calico (muslin in US) which I had previously stamped with all the Xmas stamps we received from Alphastamps. I particularly liked the star image and the vintage jolly looking Santa (he's on the top left).

I added vintage Xmas music and other vintage text relating to Xmas and Xmas napkins (serviettes in UK). I finished with turquoise Dye-na-Flow.

I left the mix to dry overnight in our airing cupboard and ironed it flat this morning.

I selected an area I liked and cut it to a 4 x 6" postcard size. Conveniently I had used some piece of vintage music called Little Candles to add to the collage which turned out to go very well with the transparency frame I later selected! Isn't it great when such co-incidences happen. I love it! I ironed the 4 x 6" collage to one side of Fast2Fuse cut to the same size. I selected a paper image from one of our Alphastamps (Tracy Roos) collage sheets, where I changed the colour of one of the angels' dresses to blue (using colouring pencils) as pink did not go well with my card. I then added a Victorian frame from the Alphastamp transparency sheet. Of course I stitched all this down (need you ask?).

To top my happy synchronicity today I received one of my Ebay orders in the mail, containing gorgeous vintage lace. One of them is made up entirely of flowers and I added one to the bottom left corner with turquoise beads in the centre, which also hold down the flower.

I ironed a turquoise star fabric to the other side of the Fast2Fuse and satin stitched around the edges with a variegated white/turquoise thread. And yes, in case you're wondering I do really love this one. Might well use it on my Christmas card this year!

Artcard Ideas Calendar

Thanks again to everyone who voted for my cards in this calendar and I thought I would let you all know that this 2008 calendar is now up for sale at the following place:

www.artcardideas.com/2007/giftshop

It gives you a total of 55 cards for the year together with techniques and inspiration to make your own fabric cards. I can't wait for the New Year to get started!

But before that moment it will be Christmas and today I received my Alphastamp kit to make Chistmas related art as a member of their Design Team. I love the things in it which is good as to be totally honest, I'm not that much of a Xmas person. But this art is vintage and I do LOVE vintage and I'm going to start thinking about Christmas right now!! Maybe make some fabric/paper collages to start me rolling. Love making them and it's a really moorish activity (i.e. once I get going, there's no stopping me!).

I've also almost finished tacking my huge quilt (this is the biggest one ever) on great new walpaper tables which John got for me and which are duely installed in one of the old cottage rooms specially for this purpose. Yet another room has been commandeered for quilting/arting duty. Wonderful. This is also where I plan to do my dirty stuff such as painting, dyeing and glueing so that there is no risk of cross contamination with my quilts!

The next step is hand quilting and this is the stage that really is my absolute favourite bit of making quilts. It will be my comfort blanket and project for this coming winter.

Artcard Ideas Calendar

More good news as one of my fabric postcards has been voted into the Artcardideas Calendar for 2008. I've uploaded it a final time so you can all have a good look. It was no. 13 in the voting (unlucky for some, but definitely lucky for me in this case) and of my 2 cards, it was the Forest Lovers that got in. Only one card from any individual artist makes it into the deck so I have no idea how many votes the other card (Springtime in Paris) got.

The image used on the Forest Lovers card is from Alphastamps.

Thanks everyone who voted for me. I'm really grateful and it was so good of you to take the trouble!

Only a short post today as I'm still recovering from my daytrip to Inverness yesterday where I had a very good time and the class was simply a pleasure. The same could not be said about the Forth Road Bridge as it took me more than 40 minutes to cross, which turned my thoughts in a worrying way to the collapsing bridge in The States some time ago.

Tomorrow I will be teaching another fabric ATC class, fortunately not too far away and no bridge crossings involved!

Quilt in 232 exhibition and Voting for Artcardideas!

I haven't blogged for a few days as my mother is over so there is not that much time left over for other things. But today we went to the official opening of the 232 group exhibition at the Smith Art Gallery in Stirling. The 232 group consist of graduates of the City & Guilds courses in Embroidery or Patchwork/Quilting at Cardonald College, Glasgow. Sadly these courses have now been discontinued at the collage, so no new members will be joining this group in future. The Smith Art Gallery is a lovely venue and I was very pleased with how my quilt was hanging. The walls of the gallery are red which set off the quilt to perfection. It's very large, just over 2M square and the gallery was just the right setting.

The quilt is called Striped Shapes and won a 1st Prize for Large Wallhangings in the National Quilt Championships, Sandown, in 2005 and has spend last year travelling with the World Quilt Festival in various venues in the US. Finally it arrived home again and I decided to display it here. Very pleased with that decision now! The circles have been applied using buttonhole stitch and the applique uses no Bondaweb, just the stitching holds the shapes in place. The fabrics used are all commercial 100% cotton batiks.

Also you may remember that I send 2 fabric postcards to Artcardideas for the competition to select the cards that will be featured on their calendar next year. I have posted pictures of my two cards again, just to remind you. You can now vote for these cards here:

Artcardideas Vote

So if you really like them, please vote for one or both of them. Thanks so much!! I would love to be in the calendar so need all the support I can get!